Bengaluru Top Guns face Hyderabad Hunters in PBL

Bengaluru Top Guns will hope to begin the New Year on a winning note when they open their Premier Badminton League (PBL) campaign against Hyderabad Hunters at the NSCI here tomorrow.
Under the mentorship of coach Arvind Bhat, Arjuna Awardee and World No. 9, Kidambi Srikanth will be leading the Bengaluru-based team which will also be boosted by the presence of Sameer Verma and Anand Pawar in Men's singles.
The Top Guns are rearing to fire tomorrow and they will depend heavily on their most expensive buy, Srikanth, who fetched a whopping USD 80,000.
For the Men's Doubles matches, Arvind will be banking on Malaysian pair of Khim Wah Lim and Hoon Thiem How, besides India's B Sumeeth Reddy, who along with his partner Manu Attri had won the Mexico Grand Prix last month.

Chinese Suo Di, known for her stunning wins against some of the world's top ranked women players, will be the go-to person in the Women's single category. In the Mixed Doubles category, India's Ashwini Ponnappa will partner with either Dane Joachim Fischer Nielsen or Scottish Robert Blair.
"Both Fischer and Blair are experienced international mixed doubles players and I am delighted to play with them as it gives me an opportunity to improve my game," Ashwin said.

"I had a great time playing with Fischer the last time around which makes it easy for me. But having said that, I have practised with Robert for the past few days and playing with him is also proving to be a great experience as well."

Top Guns coach Arvind is confident that this will signal a brilliant start to the badminton season.
"This is a great way to start an Olympic year, given the vast amount of knowledge and experience to be shared over the next two weeks. Our Indian contingent will definitely benefit a lot from the tournament and the whole experience of playing with other players rather than playing against each other will be extremely valuable," said Arvind.
Commenting on the back-to-back schedules, Arvind said: "Yes we have a pretty packed schedules, but that is a schedule that athletes have learned to cope with while travelling on an international calendar. We are confident that the schedule is just a challenge and not a hindrance."

One of the big battles in the tie will be when Srikanth comes up against fellow Indian P Kashyap, who will be leading the Hyderabad Hunters along with one of the legends of the game in Lee Chong Wei.
On the eve of the match, Srikanth was seen training hard.
"Kashyap is a world class player and though he is coming back from an injury I do not think it will have any bearing on his performance at all. I have some idea and strategies that I will use during the match but I'm sure it will be a tough challenge," he said.